2008

Jason Lowe joined the team who remains with us today as a partner and financial planner.

We became discretionary investment managers which meant that clients were able to delegate some or all of their ongoing investment decisions to us. Through offering this service this means that we are able to act quickly to changing market conditions to ensure that portfolios are always up to date.

The year also saw the business collect the Money Marketing Investing for Income Award and saw us introduce investment dinners to our events calendar.

Key events

• Jason Lowe joined the team
• We became discretionary investment managers
• Winners of the Money Marketing Investing for Income Award

What else happened in this year?

In finance…

Annual UK Inflation: 3.11% CPI
Bank base rate:

• 7 February 5.2500 %
• 4 December 2.0000 %

IHT threshold: £312,000

In the charts…

• Welsh singer Duffy made her debut with the single Mercy, from the album Rockferry. Both the single and the album hit number 1 in their respective charts in the UK, with Mercy becoming the 3^rd most successful single of the year, and the album becoming the bestselling album.

On the screen…

• After a 19 year break, the character of Indiana Jones returned to cinema with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the 4^th instalment in the series to become the 2^nd highest-grossing film of the year.
• Beating it to the top spot was The Dark Knight, 2^nd instalment in the latest Batman series. Its success was sadly overshadowed by the death of actor Heath Ledger, whose portrayal of the Joker earned him widespread critical acclaim, and numerous posthumous awards for Best Actor.

Around the world…

• 31 May – Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 100m sprint for the 1^st time, at the Reebok Grand Prix (now Adidas Grand Prix) held in New York City, setting a time of 9.72 seconds.
• 10 September – The first beam was successfully circulated through the Large Hadron Collider, near Geneva, Switzerland.
• 4 November – Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States

In the UK…

• 11 May – Manchester United secured their tenth Premier League title in 16 years with a 2–0 win at Wigan Athletic on the final day of the league season.
• 5 November – British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton wins his first World Championship, becoming the youngest ever World Champion at age 23.